


Bucky Bear

by Whedonista93



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Darcy Lewis, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Darcy Feels, F/M, WinterShock - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 21:22:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12615804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: In which Bucky needs a hug, but doesn’t think he deserves one, Tony Stark (temporarily) maims a vintage toy, The Avengers are good wingmen, and everyone is happy in the end.





	Bucky Bear

Bucky likes the other residents of the Avengers facility. No, really, he does. It’s just…

  
Stevie can’t look at him without that hopeful puppy dog face. And Bucky is remembering, but it’s slow and… painful.

  
Bucky rarely wants to talk, but when he does, Sam always seems to just be there, and Bucky is grateful for it, even if he doesn’t know how to say so.

  
He and Natalia, no, Natasha… He and Natasha can’t really look at each other without getting a little… sullen. They make great sparring partners, though.

  
Clint sees more than anyone ever should. He seems to catch Bucky on his worst days, but instead of calling him on it, or trying to make him talk the archer subtly introduces him to memes and YouTube until Bucky is laughing so hard his chest hurts and tears are streaming down his face. It’s also Clint who first gets Bucky to pick up a gun again - a light hearted, teasing bet that Clint could outshoot him, but a quiet confidence in his eyes. Neither ever tells anyone who won that first contest.

  
The twins, Wanda and Pietro, seem to have adopted him as some kind of pseudo older brother and he doesn’t know how to shake them off. After the third time he finds them asleep on his couch - they’re both whimpering in the midst of what he assumes is a shared nightmare - something tugs at whatever is left of his heart and he just bundles them up in piles of blankets and pillows and stops trying to get rid of them. He makes them breakfast instead. None of them comment on it when Bucky sets up the guest rooms on his floor for the two of them and they slowly stop using their own floor.

  
Eventually, the twins floor is repurposed for Scott and his little girl Cassie. Wanda and Natasha bond over setting up an absolute dream paradise of a play room for the girl - blatantly abusing Stark’s credit card to give Cassie everything they never had. Bucky, Pietro, and Scott just watch on wide-eyed and slightly frightened. It’s at that point in time that Scott realizes some of the most influential women in his little girl’s formative years are going to be the most dangerous and powerful women on the planet and he can’t decide if he’s thrilled or terrified. Bucky laughs, claps him on the shoulder, and tells him he should definitely be both.

  
Bruce is kind, but distant. Bucky doesn't take it personally, the guy seems to be like that with everyone.

  
Tony… Tony swears up and down that he doesn’t blame Bucky for Howard and Maria. Whether he does or not, Bucky blames himself, and the two mutually keep their distance from each other. Steve and Sam both swear they’ll get along eventually, but for right now, Bucky thinks their relationship is the best it can be.

  
The Vision freaks Bucky the fuck out and Bucky stays the hell away from him whenever it is even remotely possible.

  
Bucky learns two things about Thor very quickly. One, he can pretty much take the guy at face value; he’s painfully genuine. Two, the guy is just as strong as he looks, and way more dangerous. Thor also makes a great sparring partner.

  
Thor’s dame, Jane, is a mess. A tiny whirlwind of utter brilliance with a habit of semi-accidentally opening portals and wormholes and a tendency to get into arguments (that go way over Bucky’s head) with Tony about everything. She treats Bucky just like she treats everyone else - as a social obligation in the way of Science! - and Bucky might be just a little bit in love with her for that.

  
And if Bucky is a little bit in love with Jane, he is utterly and completely head over heels with her assistant. Even in her usual outfits of loose sweaters and leggings, Darcy’s curves and bright red lipstick make her look like she walked straight off a 1940’s pinup poster. Bucky doesn’t know he has a thing for glasses until he meets Darcy. And the mouth on that woman… all sharp wit and snarky replies for everything and language that makes Stevie turn incredibly entertaining shades of red. And Darcy, like Jane, treats Bucky just like she treats everyone else. Unfortunately, Darcy treating him just like she treats everyone else is a lot more hands on than Jane treating him like she treats everyone else. Darcy treating him like she treats everyone else means making him hot chocolate when she finds him awake at all hours, unable to sleep because of the nightmares and the memories. It means her invading his personal space when there isn’t enough room on the couch during team movie nights. It means her trekking through little mom and pop shops and rooting through rooftop gardens all over Brooklyn to find everything to make all his favorite foods just right for his birthday. It means lewd comments when he’s sparring in the gym. It means hand knit blankets showing up all over his apartment after a month straight of not sleeping well. 

So Bucky does what any half-sane, mostly-former assassin would do. He withdraws. He sits as far away from her as he can when they’re in the same room. If she’s already in the gym when he heads in, he turns around and leaves before she sees him. If he hears her humming or singing in the communal kitchen, he books it back to his own apartment or drives the twins into the city for take-out.

And Darcy… always too perceptive Darcy, she narrows her eyes at him - silently lets him know she sees him doing it, quietly tries to hide her hurt - but she never calls him on it. Pretty much everyone else does, though.  
“She is sad.” Wanda tells him.  
“You are stupid, old man.” Pietro tells him.  
“What happened, Buck?” Steve implores. “She’s just about the sweetest gal I’ve met this century and you guys were gettin’ on so well…”  
“If you did something, or if she did something, you’ve gotta talk to her about it, man. Darcy is a straightforward girl. Whatever it is, she can handle it.” Sam tells him bluntly.  
“She misses you.” Clint tells him quietly, something almost threatening in his eyes.  
“You’re being an idiot.” Natasha says. “But I understand why.”  
Jane corners him in an elevator. “Darcy forbid Thor from threatening you. That doesn’t mean I can’t use him to threaten you. Whatever is wrong between you and Darcy, fix it. Or we’re gonna experiment with just how much of a lightning strike that fancy arm Tony built you can handle. I’ve already got some theories. Don’t make me test them.”

  
A month after he starts steering clear of Darcy - No, Wanda, it is not hiding - she stumbles into the common room with slightly singed hair and looking severely pissed off. When she spots Bucky sprawled across one of the couches, she gets a worrying glint in her eye, but positively beams as she stalks right toward him. Bucky is frozen, because he can’t think of a way to escape without being downright rude, and he knows his ma raised him better than that.   
Bucky goes even more rigid when Darcy literally drops and sprawls right on top of him. She wriggles down into the nonexistent gap between Bucky and the back of the couch, tosses her glasse onto the coffee table, and then lifts his left arm and wraps it securely around her waist. She rests her head over his heart and wraps her arms around his middle before sighing contentedly.  
“Relax, soldier.” She mutters, muffled against his chest. “Stark killed my Bucky Bear, so the real thing is gonna have to do. Whatever the issue is between us, we can figure it out later. Right now, I just want to fucking sleep.”  
Bucky doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he doesn’t. He just pulls a ridiculously soft blanket off the back of the couch over them both. Darcy makes a content, sleepy little sound, and is asleep in minutes.

Bucky doesn’t remember falling asleep, only watching Darcy sleep, but he wakes up, sleep-warm and still wrapped in Darcy’s arms, to soft voices around them. He actually feels rested for the first time since he’s come back to the real world. He keeps his eyes closed and decides to eavesdrop.  
“I still don’t get how the fuck that worked.” Stark sounds incredulous.  
“You’ve never heard her sleep deprived or drunken ramblings about him being built to be a cuddle buddy.” Jane sounds smug.  
“But how’d you know torching the bear would work?” Tony sounds exasperated.  
“The bear was just a substitute.” Sam chimes in.  
“So she really wanted old, dark, and broody?” Pietro asks.  
Bucky can hear the smirk in the kid’s voice and knows that at least Pietro knows he’s awake. Bucky cracks his eyes open and glares. Pietro grins unrepentantly.   
“You’re buying her a new bear.” Bucky growls, turning his glare on Stark. He gets more than a little satisfaction when Stark leaps a good foot out of his seat with a hand over his chest.  
“Why? So you can run away again?” Natasha is perched on the back of the couch above his head, looking down at him with raised eyebrows.   
He huffs out a frustrated breath and closes his eyes. He opens them again and shakes his head. “No. Because it was a dick move to destroy it.”  
“Hey!” Tony protests. “I didn’t exactly destroy it. And I recruited help to fix it!”  
Bucky raises an eyebrow in question just as Steve walks in, bear tucked under his arm. Bucky turns the eyebrow on his best friend. Steve obediently holds the bear out for inspection. The fur around the left shoulder is singed, and the left arm has been painstakingly sewed back into place - only now instead of soft brown fur, it’s a metallic looking grayish silvery fabric with a red star on the upper half. Bucky can’t help it, he huffs out a laugh.   
Wanda laughs lightly. “She will love it even more.”  
“So you are done running away from her, right?” Clint asks from his perch on the coffee table.  
“What is this, some kind of intervention?” Bucky glares at the group.  
“Pretty much, yeah.” Sam confirms, clearly unrepentant.  
Bucky closes his eyes again. Swallows. Opens his eyes. “Yeah, I’m done running. Don’t know why I was in the first place. Darcy… she’s kinda inevitable, isn’t she?”  
“Yup.” Jane sounds smug again.  
Pietro and Tony both whoop and throw their fists in the air.  
Darcy shoots up straight, curls going wild. “Wha-?” She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and looks at the group around them. “What the fuck guys?”  
“Uh…” Clint bites his lip.  
Bucky laughs as he hands Darcy her glasses and she absent mindedly perches them on her nose. They’re all willing to tell the assassin that they’re meddling in his life, but far more hesitant to tell Darcy the same. Bucky can’t help but find it incredibly amusing. Darcy looks down at him curiously.  
His left arm is still snugly behind her back, so he waves his right around the room. “They were staging an intervention. They decided I was being an idiot.”  
Darcy’s grin spreads as she catches on. “Really?”  
Bucky nods.  
“Did it work?”  
Bucky huffs out a breath. “Yeah, doll, it worked.”  
Darcy squeals and throws herself back on top of him, arms going around his neck and head tucking into the crook between his chin and shoulder. He hugs her back, and for the first time there’s no hesitation in the gesture.  
“You can all leave now.” Darcy informs the group.   
“Uh… Intern?” Tony sounds as unsure as Bucky has ever heard him.  
“Shoo, Stark. You’re still on my shit list.” Darcy warns without lifting her head.  
“Oh, come on Darcy, just look at me for a second?” Tony all but begs.  
Darcy grumbles unintelligibly but sits up and faces him. The billionaire is holding the modified Bucky Bear in front of him like a shield. Darcy reaches out and makes grabby hands. “Gimme!”  
Tony tosses it at her.  
Darcy catches it and examines it closely, cooing over it’s little “metal” arm. “Okay, you’re forgiven. But still, shoo.”  
“You do realize this is the common area, right?” Clint asks.  
Darcy glares. Clint vacates. Everyone else trickles out behind him and Bucky is once again amazed at how this one woman has the most powerful people on earth wrapped around her little finger.  
He’s sure he looks like a lovestruck idiot with a dopey smile when she looks back down at him, but she just smiles back.  
He takes a deep breath, gathering his courage. “Can I… Can I kiss you, Darce?”  
Her smile grows and she stretches herself back over him. “Finally!”  
He gets more than one kiss. And eventually falls asleep again, with Darcy in his arms and the Bucky Bear tucked under her arm between them.

 


End file.
